More from this theme Recent articles In July, after almost three years in the shadow education team, Helen Hayes waited for her call to serve in government. That call never came. Now she’s bagged the job of holding her former colleagues to account as chair of the powerful parliamentary education committee. Hayes was shadow children’s minister from December 2021 to July of this year, and “loved that work”. And while she says she had “no expectation” that she would get a ministerial role following Labour’s landslide win, “of course I’d hoped to be able to continue the work in government”. “I felt, in having not been appointed to the front bench, that serving as chair of the education select committee would be a really good way of putting everything that I’d learned and all of that work to good use.” She has also spent seven of her nine years in parliament sitting on committees, which are “where some of the most productive and impactful work takes place”. Holding government to account Hayes will also be …